













©CU476869 

NOV -I 1917 

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4 ' 


-rtU3\ 

- 3 ^ FOREWORD 

‘ A. D. 1917 

lHE Tale of Silver was written in 1907. J 
/ was requested to revise it in 1917. I have 
done so by leaving the original manuscript 
intact bringing statistical figures up to date by 
footnotes. I believe this method to be the best, 
inasmuch as it permits an accurate comparison with 
conditions predicted , and as they are found now. 
The test measures, in a large degree, the right of 
The Tale of Silver to stand as a logical prediction of 
what is yet to come. I personally see no reason to 
alter or modify now statements made in the origi¬ 
nal Mss. 

'This is the month of September, and, as I write, 
I have before me this from the New York Sun 
(September 6, 1917, morning issue): 

BAR SILVER AT NEW HIGH 

Thousands of Mexican Dollars Melted 
as It Touches 95^ 

Another jump in the price of bar silver yesterday 
was accompanied by reports of a tremendous move¬ 
ment in the importation of Mexican dollars by New 
York silver brokers, who are converting them into 
bullion because the value of the metal has now far 
exceeded the par value of the coin. In this market 
bar silver touched cents, while Mexican dollars 
advanced 2 cents more, to 76 cents. A year ago silver 
was selling at 68 cents an ounce. 

One broker here has sacks of silver in his vaults 
which represented 50,000 Mexican dollars converted 
into bullion. It was said that this amount is only a 
small fraction of the silver currency now being brought 
out of Mexico despite measures, by the Mexican 
Government to prevent its money from being drained 
off by the attraction of high bullion prices in this 
country. 


( 1 ) 


The Mexican silver dollar was for years valued at 
about 50 cents. The Philippine peso is now worth 
more than par and the authorities there are enforcing 
a law to prevent its exportation. Silver authorities 
say there will be no danger of owners melting and 
selling American dollars for bullion until the white 
metal climbs to $1.29 an ounce. 

The high price of silver is attributed to an increased 
demand and decreased production. The chief increase 
in the demand is said to be due to enlarged use of 
the metal for world coinage caused by the with¬ 
drawal of gold from circulation and the substitution 
of silver for it. 

At the same time producing centres all over the 
world have suffered a curtailment of output. Mexico, 
because of internal conditions, is producing only 40 
per cent, of its normal supplies. In the United States 
the reduction is attributed to strikes and to lack of 
melting materials due to war demands. The world’s 
supply of the metal is well sold ahead with a prospect 
of still higher prices. 

The logic of conditions in 1907 pointed unerringly 
to conditions as they exist today; silver is up and it 
will go up higher with the course of the years. 
I can see nothing to prevent that and everything 
to cause it. To my mind the silver situation opens 
a wonderful opportunity to those who can see and 
have the means at hand to profit by it. “Buy for 
the long swing.” 

Robert Ruxton. 


The Dando Company, Publishers 

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 


( 2 ) 


THE TALE OF SILVER 

% 

By Robert Ruxton 

Author of The Tale of Coppers , The Science 
of Investment , Fortune Building , etc. 

Copyright, 1907, by the Business and Finance Publishing Com¬ 
pany; Copyright, 1917, by Robert Ruxton and 
The Dando Company 

(All rights reserved) 

WHERE AND HOW SILVER IS FOUND 

Silver impregnates Nature. All native gold contains 
from .016 to 16 per cent, of silver, the average impregna¬ 
tion ranging from 3 to 13 per cent. The gold of Cali¬ 
fornia carries with it about 12 per cent, of silver; it exists 
in sea water in the ratio of one millegramme to one 
hundred killogrammes, and, assuming that there is one 
centigramme of silver per cubic metre of water it has been 
calculated that the oceans contain not less than 2,000,000 
tons of the lustrous metal. “Silvery moonlight waves,” 
therefore, comprise a more literal metaphor than the 
poets have perhaps generally supposed. 

In commercial quantities, however, silver is found in 
combination with sulphur, arsenic, etc., and with ores of 
lead, copper and gold. Most ores of lead contain silver; 
and, indeed, it so constantly occurs with lead that ores 
of the latter metal furnish the main production of silver; 
it is also frequently present in zinc ores, and occasionally 
found with iron ores; it has been associated with gold as 
a “precious” metal, and its intrinsic value in the markets 
of the world has rendered its discovery in conjunction with 
the baser ores most welcome, a few ounces of it in a ton 
of ore meaning the difference between profit and loss in 
working a mine, a very small per cent, of it in lead or 
copper ores making it the metal of chief value. Thus 
silver, in mining history, has the record of enabling the 
miner to reach, through its aid, copper, lead, zinc, that 
would have otherwise remained buried in the depths of 
the earth, through it being impossible to otherwise reach 
them with profit; the giant Anaconda mine, of Butte, 
Montana, for illustration, was originally opened and 
worked as a silver mine, J. B. Haggin, the elder Hearst 
and Marcus Daly being its original owners; as the work 

( 3 ) 


of development, progressed, the silver ore was gradually 
replaced by high grade copper^ and silver, consequently, 
was responsible for this gift to humanity; a generous one 
it has proved, the Anaconda having, since its discovery, 
paid dividends of over thirty million dollars and lifted 
thousands to affluence. Indeed, the Anaconda today is 
probably one of the largest individual silver producers 
in the United States, although the silver is now regarded 
as a by-product-of the copper ore it mines, and is gradually 
decreasing as the mine grows deeper. 

Silver is frequently found more pure than the silver 
dollar you daily handle. The silver dollar is composed of 
900 parts silver, and 100 parts copper, whilst silver in 
its natural state has been found over 995 parts pure; 
its chief alloys when in this form comprise gold, copper, 
quicksilver, nickel, antimony or bismuth. 

HISTORICAL 

From a fragment of x^gatharcides it appears that in 
Ancient Arabia silver was reckoned fen times more valu¬ 
able than gold. In Egypt silver is always mentioned 
before gold in the inscriptions, and silver objects are 
rarer than gold in the tombs. Wisdom and instruction 
are frequently compared for preciousness to pure silver, 
as are also the words of God. Ecbatana, prior to its 
capture by Alexander, had a palace roofed and tiled with 
pure silver. Diodorous informs us the thickly wooded 
Pyrenean mountains were once on fire, and the heat 
caused the melting of minerals on the surface, pure silver 
running down their sides in streams like water. 

Silver was not only familiar to the Egyptians in the time 
of Moses, but, as we learn in the Book of Genesis, it was 
coined into money before Joseph was set over the land of 
Egypt by Pharaoh, which happened 872 years before 
Christ, and consequently 224 years before the departure 
of the children of Israel from Egypt. 

The earliest silver coinage know'n to the world was the 
product of mines in Mount Laurium, comprised in the 
chain of hills occupying the southern extremity of the 
Attic Peninsula. Phidon, king of Egina (B. C. 809) was 
the first who struck coin, but to the Greeks must be given 
the credit for perfecting the art of coinage. 

( 4 ) 


The first time any mark, was officially mentioned as 
being impressed on articles of silver was in 1300. Gold 
and silver, of the sterling of England, were both at that 
time recognized everywhere as the standards for the 
precious metals. * 

In Iberia and Spain silver was in ancient times so 
abundant that scarcely any labor was required to obtain 
it. The Phoenicians made anchors for their vessels of 
the metal from Spanish mines, and in the time of the 
Romans* 40,000 men were continuously employed in 
the silver mines. 

All the known countries containing silver mines were, 
history records, ultimately brought under the yoke of 
Rome, and the product they had yielded in the centuries 
previous were delivered by tribute, plunder and otherwise 
to the Roman coffers. Carthage, Spain, Germany, Greece, 
Asia, and Egypt, within little more than one hundred and 
fifty years after the fierce Roman soldiery had stemmed 
the Hellespont, became vassals to Imperial Rome. By 
the time the Roman Augustus had attained the Imperial 
degree, Rome had become the capital of the civilized 
world, and the silver treasures of conquered nations 
were drawn thereto, from whence they were again dis¬ 
tributed through all portions of the Empire in such due 
proportion as their productive powers entitled them to 
receive. Thus culminates the ancient history of silver. 

EUROPEAN SILVER MINES 

The silver mines of Saxony were discovered between 
1320 and 1330. The mines at Schneeberg yielded about 
#1,500,000 in silver. They are now exhausted. 

The silver mines of the Hartz Forest, in Germany, were 
discovered in the *6th Century by a hunter whose horse, 
pawing the ground beneath the tree to which he was 
fastened, exposed the gleaming metal below. These mines 
have yielded at many periods of their history over 300,000 
ounces of silver yearly. 


THE SILVER TREASURE VAULTS OF SOUTH AMERICA 

“I am not blind to the unison of opinion, as expressed 
by scientists and experts, that Mexico will one day furnish 

(5) 



the gold, silver and copper of the world; that from her 
hidden vaults, her subterranean treasure houses, will 
come the gold, silver, copper and precious stones that 
will build the empires of tomorrow and make future 
cities of this world veritable Jerusalems.’’— The Late 
Cecil Rhodes. 

“The Potosi mines yielded 600 millions sterling in 
320 years.”— Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics , 1898. 

Mexico has ever been known in historical chronicles 
as the silver country and has sturdily held her own in 
silver leadership, although the most recent reports seem 
to show that the United States has at last passed her in 
the silver producing race. In the 16th Century, Mexico 
delivered such enormous quantities of the pale metal to 
the world that we are told in Europe no person above 
the rank of peasant drank from other than a silver tankard. 
Humboldt informs us that in the space of three hundred 
years the mines in various parts of South America fur¬ 
nished three hundred and sixteen million, twenty-three 
thousand, eight hundred and eighty-three pounds weight 
of pure silver, and in 1868 the annual product from Mexican 
mines was estimated to weigh one million six hundred 
thousand pounds. It is, however, but fair to state that 
Humboldt’s figures have been frequently challenged by 
more than one able statistician. Mexican silver mines 
are, as a rule, found in favorable localities for their most 
profitable working, being situate at elevations ranging 
from 6,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea, where climatic 
conditions are perfect. Valenciana and Rayas, near 
Gunaxuato, are historical producers which gave the 
world, in the 19th Century, more silver than the famous 
Potosi yielded. In the Pasco Mountains the mines of 
Peru are found situate generally at bleak elevations 
where the miner gives constant battle to snow and ice. 
The Potosi mine is worked at an altitude equal to that 
of Mount Blanc. 

The Pasco silver mines of Peru were discovered by an 
Indian shepherd named Huari Capcha. The fire he 
kindled for warmth through the night exposed in the 
morning a quantity of glittering white metal commingled 
with the ashes. Among the historical mines of Peru may 
be mentioned the mines of San Fernando, and the southern 
districts constantly give birth to further rich silver dis- 

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coveries. Many romantic tales hinge on these discoveries. 
The world renowned Potosi mine from the time of its 
discovery, in 1545, till the middle of the 19th Century 
produced more than two hundred and thirty-seven mil¬ 
lions sterling (English pounds). 

A Mexican named Bartolome Medina, discovered the 
method of treating silver known as cold amalgam process. 
Mexico is traversed by rich silver veins in which gold is 
frequently found, but she is primarily a silver country. 
W. Jones, in his work, “Treasures of the Earth,” gives 
credence to the statement that, after death, the mules 
employed in the mines are opened, and as much as seven 
pounds of silver has been found in their stomachs. 

Mexico has exhausted the treasures of many of her 
historical mines, but other deposits are constantly being 
discovered, or abandoned mines are being re-opened at 
a profit by the introduction of modern processes of treating 
and mining the silver ores. The Botopilas mine, in the 
State of Chihauhau, is a tremendous silver producer, 
enriching the world’s stock of the pale metal to the extent 
of 200,000 ounces per month. The possibilities inherent 
in Mexican and other silver producers can be gauged 
from the following tabulation of modern producers: 


SHARE VALUE OF A FEW MEXICAN MINES 


Name of Mine 

Par Value 

Present 

La Natividad. 

. . . . $ 30.00 

$1,020.00 

Santa Maria de Guadelupe. . . 


65.OO 

San Carlos y Anexas. 

. . . . 10.00 

137 * 5 ° 

Lourdes. 

. .. . 5.00 

22.50 

Campania de Penoles. 

. . . . 100.00 

3,900.00 

San Andres de la Sierra. 

.... 250.00 

10,000.00 

Victoria y Anexas. 

. ... 20.00 

425.00 

Maravillasel Lobo. 

. . .. 50.00 

160.00 

San Rafael y Anexas. 

. .. . 50.00 

1,720.00 

Soledad. 


735.00 

Lux de Borda. 

.... 10.00 

145.00 

Dos Estrellas... 

. .. . 100.00 

2,800.00 

La Esperanza y Anexas. 

. .. . 100.00 

1,500.00 

Naica. 

. .. . 300.00 

12,000.00 

La Fraternal. 

. ... 10.00 

595.00 

Norias de Bajan. 

. ... 20.00 

830.00 

San Pablo .. 


310.10 


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Australia’s treasure vault 

In Australia is found the great silver lode known as 
Broken Hill.* Up to 1905 silver to the value of nearly 
two hundred and seventeen million of dollars has been 
drawn from this mine and shareholders have drawn 
dividends exceeding sixty-four millions of dollars. This 
great mine was discovered by a boundary rider named 
Charles Rasp, in 1863. This property is the silver giant 
of the Southern Seas, although silver is found in other 
portions of the Australian Continent. 


THE TALE OF THE COMSTOCK LODE 

Horace Greeley's Remarkable Prophecy 

“Lastly, I have come across a desolate and terrible 
country, a land seemingly worthless forever—the Great 
American Desert. But I believe that the Almighty has 
created nothing in vain, and as I have passed over this 
awful region, the thought has fixed in my mind that, 
since it is certainly useless for every other purpose, it 
may be a land of vast mineral wealth. If that be so, it 
will take a hundred thousand miners a hundred thousand 
years even to prospect it.”— From a speech by Horace 
Greeley in the summer of i 8 yg. 

In 1848 an enormous army of miners and fortune 
builders toiled painfully over the Nevada Desert, their 
eyes and thoughts on California, never dreaming that 
around and beneath many points of their pilgrimage lay 
wealth whose fabulous richness wuts destined to add one 
of the most wonderful chapters to the Tale of Silver. 

Mount Davidson, towering high above the Washoe 
Mountains marks the approximate centre of the Comstock 
Silver Camps, as within a radius of less than ten miles 
from the Peak many of the most sensational “finds” 
w r ere recorded. 

The silver treasures of the Comstock were discovered 
by miners who were prospecting for gold which w r as found 
in the beds of the streams pouring down from the north 
and south sides of Mount Davidson. As the early pros- 

*Historical chronicles differ widely both as to discovery and 
amount produced. 


( 8 ) 




pectors worked up the ravines toward this peak the gold 
they obtained became lighter in color, and of lesser value 
than that previously obtained. It was impregnated with 
silver, but these men did not know that. They were 
approaching silver vaults of stupendous richness, and 
did not know it. Ignorant of geology, these men also 
failed to realize that, whilst in the lower reaches of the 
ravines they were simply treating the scourings from 
sides of Mount Davidson, they were approaching daily 
the actual source from which the metal came. Gold 
Canon was the name of the southern ravine in which 
these old miners worked. 

The Grosh brothers, two eastern men, possessing a 
better theoretical knowledge of the mining art than 
their rude companions, were the first, it seems, to both 
suspect and discover the existence of silver in Gold Canon. 
In a letter written to their people, in March, 1856, they 
state they were desirous of “getting a couple of hundred 
dollars together for the purpose of making a careful 
examination of a silver lead in Gold Canon.” “Native 
silver is found here,” they continue, “the miners supposing 
it to be thin sheet lead, which it resembles.” 

In September they again wrote that they had “found 
two veins of silver at the forks of Gold Canon—one of 
these veins is a perfect monster.” 

$200 UNOBTAINABLE TO PROSPECT THE GREAT 
COMSTOCK LODE 

The writer pauses here to obesrve that the two brothers 
failed to get the $200 they asked. Afterwards speculators 
poured out millions of dollars to prospect and develop 
the same ground the brothers were working over, reporting 
to their friends that they had “found two veins of silver 
—one of them a perfect monster.” Over $250,000,000 
was spent in and around this locality within twenty-one 
years afterward. Over $306,000,000 was taken from it 
within the same period. And the brothers asked for $200 
—and didn’t get it! However: 

Writing home again in June, 1857, they sent a diagram 
—if this diagram is examined now it will be seen that it 
was almost certainly a reproduction of the south end 
Comstock ledges, whose marvelous production has become 

(9) 


historical. Surely, Dame Fortune was about to dower 
the brothers with riches! From rock they took from this 
vein they had an assay made which run over thirty-five 
hundred dollars to the ton! They had really struck the 
great Comstock Lode. Millionaires now, of course, you 
say—they died miserably poor. Hosea from blood- 
poisoning, by a wound from his pick, in their miserable 
little cabin at the mouth of American Flat Ravine. Allen, 
starting some little time after to explain to capitalists 
the bonanza he had found, died from exposure in the 
bleak Sierras. Some say he carried his secret to the 
grave; others, that it was unearthed from papers left 
behind in the little cabin when he started on his fateful 
journey, and which were later unearthed by a man named 
Comstock. 


Ignorant, uncouth, knowing only one metal, gold, some 
seventy or eighty hardy prospectors were, in 1858, working 
on the upmost slopes east and south of Mount Davidson. 
Stupendous wealth lay under their feet, broad hints of it 
lay nightly in their sluice boxes, “heavy blue stuff that 
clogged their rifles—d-n it.” Around here, it seems, a 
little body of them located a little mound which they 
called Gold Hill. This was the south end of the mighty 
Comstock. A few feet below lay hidden the stupendous 
wealth that the Yellow Jacket, Belcher, Crown Point, 
Imperial, Kentuck, Empire and others afterward gouged 
out. 

The miners here made fair wages from the surface 
placer ground. Quite a little local excitement was roused 
as a matter of fact, and other prospectors wandered 
through the locality hoping to strike ground as compara¬ 
tively rich. They sometimes were fortunate in finding 
gold in little crevices of rock, but it became very soon 
exhausted. In the meantime these hardy pioneers were 
finding—and cursing—the “strange blue stuff” that had 
worried them in their previous sluicing operations, and 
which they now began to find in the hard earth encountered 
the moment they went below the surface. Near Gold 
Hill, on the side of a little declevity, two Irish miners 
located. These men had been disheartened with the 
hardness of the ground in which they had been previously 

( 10 ) 



working, and from which they barely earned $ 2.00 daily. 
This hillside looked more inviting. It was of yielding 
clay and loose gravel. They began it as a forlorn hope, 
hoping to get into a more inviting district from the little 
money they could take from this claim. As a matter of 
fact, they were working on the very top of the gigantic 
deposits of silver and gold that were afterward taken out 
by the sensational Ophir. 

However, they had hardly sunk four feet before they 
“struck it rich,” their pan showing gold glittering in the 
bottom after the first washing. Here was something 
they understood. A black streak of some substance 
extended down the ledge (silver), but they took no 
notice of it. 

Comstock, it is recorded, came along as they washed 
their first pan, and a glance at it roused his cupidity. He 
set up, we are told, a more or less valid claim to the prop¬ 
erty, and induced these men to give him a share in the 
claim. They worked steadily in pay dirt till June 12th, 
when the pay streak run into a ledge. This date chronicles 
the discovery of the Comstock proper then. Striking the 
ledge was a matter of regret. Hard rock had ever been 
avoided by these knights of the sluice box, and it seems 
to pressage the rapid exhaustion of their claim. Stupid¬ 
ity to the meaning of unmistakable treasure signs was 
rampant. They were dwelling over, working over, sleep¬ 
ing over enormous mineral deposits destined to fire a 
continent with excitement, and did not know it. 

It should be remembered that these were placer miners. 
They labored by hand, and were baffled when soft gravel 
or clay led them to rock. They were searching for gold, 
and now indeed, they were getting it. Each man was 
making from five hundred to a thousand dollars daily in 
gold—and throwing away several times that amount 
in silver. 


The men on top of the future Ophir soon drew a cluster 
of tents around them, and “Old Virginia,” a character 
among characters, named the place, in a drunken revel, 
Virginia City. 

These men, having in their possession millions of w'ealth, 
sold their birthrights for a mess of pottage. As the sur- 



face ground was worked out they came to stubborn rock, 
considered their claims exhausted, and sold out. A fifth 
interest in the coming great Ophir mine was secured by 
Osborn for building a hut on the claim. He thought he 
made a keen bargain when he sold that interest for $7,000. 
McLaughlin, one of the original owners, sold his interest 
for $3,500, and Comstock sold for $11,000. All the origi¬ 
nal owners of the world famous lode died poor whilst 
thousands were being enriched from the contents of the 
famous mine they once owned. 


It seems it was left for a farmer to tell the miners how 
they were flouting Fortune—Harrison was his name. 
He rode one day to Virginia City and saw men there 
throwing away masses of “blue stuff,” with blood curdling 
imprecations on its uselessness. Harrison carried some of 
it home and invested a few dollars in sending it for assay. 
He was told that a ton of it was worth $1,595 in gold and 
$4,791 in silver! Judge Walsh and Joe Woodworth, of 
Nevada City, when they heard Harrison’s report, quietly, 
but swiftly, made a bee-line for Virginia City and a thou¬ 
sand “fellow citizens” poured after them—the Comstock 
boom was on. The ensuing tale is one of mad avarice— 
from all quarters of the continent men poured over the 
bleak Sierras to wrest from their rock-ribbed sides the 
wealth of silver they held. It was certainly there. Even 
the water was found impregnated with gold and silver, 
the mixture of minerals giving it a bitter taste, and eventu¬ 
ally threatening the health of the miners. 

It is estimated that over $306,000,000 was yielded in 
bullion from the Comstock within twenty-one years, 
and that dividends of over $116,000,000 were paid within 
the same period. 


THE SPECTACULAR COMSTOCK 

Comstock mining was distinguished by spectacular 
effects throughout. A shaft might be sunk down through 
ore of poor quality, when, suddenly, it would break into 
a veritable treasure vault of nature. When this occurred 
the stocks based on these various mines would leap sky¬ 
ward with terrific speed. As the shaft worked through 

( 12 ) 



these rich deposits poor ore would again be encountered 
and prices would as quickly drop, only to be revived 
again, sometimes within a few days, sometimes within a 
few months, and occasionally with intervals of a year or 
more. Crown Point, for instance, an early dividend- 
payer, at one time ceased dividends and began to replace 
them by assessments. Its stock sold at a price that made 
the market value of the mine $24,000. Many disheartened 
shareholders let go their holdings; gloom prevailed, and 
the Comstock began to be spoken of as a “has been.” 
Suddenly the intensely hard pophry grew softer, being 
replaced by soft white quartz which contained ore in 
knobs. The stock was selling about this time at $2.00 per 
share. Men who went to bed poor arose rich. Between 
May, 1864, and May, 1877, this mine alone yielded nearly 
twenty-five millions of dollars. In 1870 Crown Point 
stock was sold at $2.99 per share. Eighteen months later 
it was selling to eager purchasers at $ 1,825 per share. 
Its value as estimated by the stock market had advanced 
from $24,000 to $22,000,000! Truly, mining is full of 
surprises. A successive scries of incidents such as this 
distinguishes the history of nearly all the Comstock 
mines. Old miners and speculators began to buy stock 
of Comstock mines that had worked fruitlessly for a 
long time; it was argued that they had been a long time 
delving without luck and their operations must have 
brought them nearer other treasures. In many cases 
this line of reasoning proved correct. As a matter of 
fact all the mines were working on mountains that con¬ 
tained tremendously rich deposits of ore, and given that 
fact, one mine was as likely to be as lucky as another. 

Bonanza strikes began to occur in quick succession and 
brought in their train frantic bids for the stock holding 
of lucky owners. Ophir yielded $20,000,000; Savage, 
$16,500,000; Hale and Norcross, $11,000,000; Chollar and 
Potosi, $16,000,000; Gould and Curry, $15,000,000; 
Yellow Jacket, $16,5000,00; Crown Point, $22,000,000; 
Belcher, $26,000,000; Overman, $3,500,000; Imperial, 
$2,750,000. Famous bullion producers abounded through 
the district, and for the first twelve years after 1859 the 
Comstock mines enriched the world to the extent of over 
$12,000,000 annually. 


( 13 ) 


These stupendous riches naturally required capital to 
get out and a movement set in among a few wealthy men 
to gradually acquire control of the leading mining prop¬ 
erties, the Bank of California being the instrument through 
which these men worked. The yield of the mines began 
to decrease and this bank stepped into the field with 
offers to loan money at rates much below those locally 
charged. William Sharon, a close student of the geology 
of the district, also a daring speculator, was managing 
the branch of the Bank of California at Virginia City. 
He had the courage of his opinions, and his judgment was 
relied on implicity by the San Francisco rings of capital¬ 
ists. With singular courage these men, counseled by 
Sharon, poured their funds into the district at a time 
when ore deposits seemed to be about exhausted, and the 
lustre of the Comstock dimmed forever. He fathered 
the famous Mill and Mining Company, and like the 
Guggenheims, his policy was to let the others mine the 
ore whilst his company acquired control of the mills neces¬ 
sary to reduce it to bullion. In two years the corporation 
owned seventeen mills on the Comstock lode, monopolizing 
the milling of nearly all ores produced. 

Sharon built a railroad to Virginia City, and this at a 
period when the fortunes of the Comstock were more than 
problematical. This required courage of the highest 
order. The bullion product of the lode, which had been 
$16,000,000 in 1865, fell to a little over $11,000,000 in 
1866, and had sagged to about seven and a half millions 
in 1869. Ophir had exhausted its pay ore, Gould and 
Curry and Yellow Jacket were giving less than a fourth 
of their previous production and the Gold Hill mines were 
passing through a period of gloom and depression. The 
venture was a dangerous one, but its outcome made 
Sharon and his associates multi-millionaires—its failure 
would have swept away their private fortunes and brought 
down the Bank of California in a crash of ruin. 

STRIKING THE GREAT BONANZA 

In 1870 the Crown Point struck its great bonanza. 
Belcher, an adjoining mine, felt the benefit, its stock 
leaping from $1.50 to $1,525 per share. Here enters 
Mackay, Fair and Flood, the world renowned silver kings. 

( 14 ) 


Lucky speculative ventures in the district had given them 
capital, also a faithful following. The Hale and Norcross 
mine, in 1868, struck its second series of bonanza ore, 
and its stock leaped from $>1,260 per share to $2,100. 
The ore paid out and the price collapsed to $42 per share. 
Mackay and Fair getting together all the capital they 
could control, beg or borrow, purchased stock sufficient to 
give them control. Fair believed he knew the mine; he 
did. Furthermore, he had a positive genius for “smelling” 
pay ore; and he always followed his nose. He discovered 
a new bonanza in Hale and Norcross and took from it 
over $780,000 in dividends between 1869 and 1870. 
Mackay and Fair successively invested in four other 
properties, one working as superintendent in the Savage, 
and the other in the Bullion. But neither of these prop¬ 
erties paid out, and the partners, whilst much weakened 
financially, were still able to secure control of the Cali¬ 
fornia and Consolidated Virginia, valued then at about 
$40,000, and deemed by skilled operators grossly over¬ 
valued at that. 

THE TINY CLEW THAT GAVE FORTUNE TO THOUSANDS 

And now Fair gained his fortune clew. Working among 
his men in barren rock his keen eye discovered a narrow 
seam of rich ore no thicker than a knife blade. They 
followed it day by day, night by night with bull-dog 
tenacity, hundreds of feet into the bowels of the earth; 
followed it when their only clew was a film of thin clay, 
followed it till it began to widen out, till it reached the 
dimensions of a seven-foot vein averaging $60 per ton. 
At a depth of 1167 feet the ore body had widened to forty 
feet. In October they were in bonanza. Probably the 
richest hoard of precious metal ever known in the history 
of the world had been found by following an almost 
invisible streak of silver clay. The capital stock of the 
Consolidated Virginia was increased to 108,000 shares. 
It sold at $45 per share. In November, 1874, it sold at 
$115, in December at $610, and in January, immediately 
following, at $700 per share. 

The California stock (mine controlled by Fair and 
Flood) went even higher, the reasoning being that of the 
two mines California had the largest part of the ore body. 

(15) 


The shares, worth $37 in September, rose to $780 in 
January, 1875, making a mine valued at $40,000 when 
Mackay acquired control, worth $84,240,000; 1,310 feet 
of the California Lode valued five years before at $50,- 
000, was now, by market quotations, worth $160,000,000. 


Silver was found in this bonanza in the most strange 
and beautiful forms; sometimes in coils or wire, some¬ 
times in silver crystals, sometimes in bunches and clusters 
of the purest silver. Staggering estimates of the value of 
ore “in sight” were made. Mackay, however, refused to 
give any estimate; it is doubtful whether he could. It 
was seen that the mine was immensely rich; how rich was 
a matter of wild conjecture. Of it the United States 
Geological Survey report of that period says: 

“No discovery which matches it has been made on this 
earth from the day when the first miner struck a ledge with 
his rude pick, until the present. The plain facts are as 
marvelous as a Persian tale, for the young Alladin did not 
see in the glittering case of the genii such fabulous riches 
as were lying in that dark womb of rock.” 

This discovery naturally sent other stocks soaring to 
the skies again. It was an era of mad speculation and it 
is estimated that there was not coin enough in America 
to secure control of the mines on the Comstock Lode. 
By the middle of 1879 Consolidated Virginia had paid 
fifty-two dividends totalling $42,020,000, and California 
had paid over $31,050,000 in the same period. 

It is noticeable in periods like these, mines have not 
to pay dividends to make stockholders wealthy. An era 
of mad speculation takes place and stock of non-dividend- 
payers sell as fast as those paying dividends. Particu¬ 
larly is this evident in a restricted district such as the 
Comstock was. Ore of tremendous richness lay in the 
mountain depths and one company was as likely to strike 
it as another. Thousands were lifted to wealth by the 
natural increment of values that ensured to their shares 
when their companies struck bonanza. Thousands were 
lifted to wealth who bought at the psychological moment 
preceeding a rich strike, and sold out on the flood tide of 
enthusiasm. And so it will ever be. 


( 16 ) 



1879 marks the decline of the Comstock. It was swiftly 
brought about, largely through natural conditions. Men 
had been delving down to the inferno beneath the thin 
earth’s crust. Above them mighty mountains labored 
in travail. The heat grew terrific, overcoming even the 
spirit of the indomitable toilers who were hurried to the 
light insensible or dead. Springs of boiling water burst 
forth from rock crevices, in which men were scalded 
to death. Foul air claimed victims in scores, and above, 
the laboring rocks crushed in shafts and crushed out lives 
with appalling suddenness. Fire, water, air and pressure 
united to repel the invaders of Nature’s treasure vaults 
and finally scored a conquest over the brain and ingenuity 
of man. 


The final story of the Comstock yet remains to be told. 
The march of modern invention brings the time within 
measurable distance when abandoned shafts will again 
vibrate with the whir of machinery, the hum of life. The 
world needs the Comstock to assuage its silver thirst, 
and human skill will be again pitted against primeval 
Nature—ultimately to conquer elements that have been 
victorious in the past. 

A REVIEW OF THE SILVER FIELDS 

Whilst men’s eyes were dazzled by the glories of the 
Comstock other camps were not idle. Pioche, in Nevada, 
earned title to greatness in the ’70s, but Comstock 
the orb eclipsed its lesser satellite. Pioche, when viewed 
in the perspective of time, assumes the proportions due 
it, the camp having produced close on $100,000,000. Un¬ 
like the Comstock, it owes its decline to lack of railroad 
facilities, its silver ores being carried to Salt Lake smelters 
on the back of burros. Transportation costs formed a 
handicap that the camp was powerless to meet and many 
of its largest producers closed down. Skilled mining 
engineers have of late reported favorably on the future 
of this camp, and the next influx of capital will probably 
flow in that direction. Prominent mining interests have 
purchased many of the old producers, and a railroad, 
fathered by Senator Clark, is now building to the district. 
Here may logically be expected the first silver revival of 

( 17 ) 



the far West, the ore being rich enough to pay handsome 
dividends when proper transportation is at the service 
of the various mines. The tremendous yields of the 
Comstock naturally stimulated prospecting throughout 
Nevada, and Pioche was one of the first results of such 
efforts. It was soon found that the mountains of Colorado 
were full of silver veins, and Idaho and Montana became 
in their turn silver producing territories. The Wasatch 
range, which towers above the Salt Lake Valley, was also 
found rich in silver-bearing lodes. 

Up to December, 1878, Colorado yielded over $16,- 
000,000 in silver. The mines of Leadville in the mean¬ 
time had been discovered and in three years this district 
yielded as much. The marvelous changes wrought by 
such discoveries in the great West can be better gauged 
when it is realized that the great silver industry of the 
United States had no existence before i860. 

In Utah, nearly two-thirds of the silver is obtained 
from the lead ores of Park City, including the mines of 
Eureka, Mammoth and other mining centres in the great 
Tiatic district. The Silver King is in Park City, a mine 
that has paid ten and a half million dollars in dividends, 
and is still pouring out a continuous stream of wealth. 
One-third of the silver comes from the refined copper 
ores mined chiefly in Bingham. It is gratifying to note 
that this source of indirect supply is undergoing a healthy 
increase and will assume more importance as the years 
roll by. 

The mines of the Coeur d’Alene contribute nearly 
one-seventh of Idaho’s total product. The Bunker Hill 
and Sullivan mine is the giant silver producer of this 
district, it having paid $2,300,000 in dividends in the 
past year. The Coeur d’Alene mines in total shipped 
mineral during 1906 to the value of nearly $22,000,000 
and disbursed to their stockholders over $6,000,000 in 
dividends. At Mace is found the Standard whose total 
output has exceeded $20,000,000. Other silver-lead 
properties of note comprise the Minnie Moore with a 
record of over $8,000,000, and the Hercules, near Burke, 
with over $1,000,00.0 in profits to its credit during 1906. 
It is surmised that many of the Western silver producers 
are storing rather than marketing their silver ores, and 
profits from this source are at present difficult to estimate. 

( 18 ) 


In Arizona approximately half of the silver produced 
comes from copper ores, the Bisbee district being respon¬ 
sible for the largest output, together with ores mined from 
the Bradshaw Mountains. The silver of California 
comes chiefly from the operations of the gold mines. 
The Presidio district in Texas, deserves mention also 
as a silver producer. 

In Montana the Granite Mountain and Bimetallis 
mines are important silver producers, but from the copper 
industry at Butte comes the bulk of this State’s silver 
production. 

Developments in Ontario, Canada, are of too recent 
occurrence to require more than passing mention. The 
marked characteristic of these most recent discoveries lies 
in the fact of tremendously rich ore. Values of $2,000 
a ton are not uncommon, and when silver is produced in 
this ratio enormous earnings are, of course, possible even 
under the most adverse conditions as to market or price. 
The mine generously endowed with silver ore can always 
be relied upon to pay enormous dividends. If men can 
produce copper at twenty cents per pound and become 
millionaires in the process, what can they do with silver 
worth anywhere from 50 cents to 70 cents per ounce— 
providing they get enough of it? 

The attempted coup by the Guggenheims in Nipissing, 
and their subquent discomfiture through some defect 
either in ore or title, points a moral that seems to have 
passed unheeded. The Guggenheims are the keenest 
judges of mining conditions in the world; the keenest 
interpreters of the conditions that make for consumption 
and production. That they were willing to pay something 
like $10,000,000 for a third interest in a mine that cost 
the original owners something like $250,000 only, virtually 
showed their hand to the silver world—a pressage of 
coming price revolutions that silver producers may well 
heed. The moral seems obvious, but for fear it is not the 
author will give a gratutious word of advice to silver 
producers throughout the country—stock your silver 
bins; follow this “tip” and you will see your silver sell 
at $1.10 before it sells at 65 cents—manipulation alone 
excepted, and of that there will be a-plenty. 

( 19 ) 


WORLD’S SILVER PRODUCTION 

THE PRODUCERS OF SILVER 

The reader will naturally be interested in knowing the 
countries of the world that are the chief producers of the 


precious metal. Following table gives them 

in the order 

of their importance: 



world’s production 

OF silver in 

1904* 


Silver Production 

Countries 

In Ounces 

Com. Value 

Mexico. 

60,808,978 

135,269,200 

United States. 

57,682,800 

33,456,000 

Australia. 

14,558,892 

8,444,200 

Bolivia. 

6,083,333 

3 > 5 28 > 3 °o 

Germany. 

5 » 7 ° 9» 1 33 

3,363,5°° 

Spain. 

4,876,076 

2,828,100 

Canada. 

3,718,668 

2,156,800 

Japan. 

3,208,620 

1,861,000 

Peru. 

3 ,°o 8 , 7 o 5 

i, 745 , r °o 

Austria-Hungary. 

1 > 987>797 

1,152,900 

Colombia. 

946,066 

548,700 

Greece. 

895, !72 

519,200 

Chile. 

868,067 

503,500 

Italy. 

757,777 

439 , 5 oo 

Central America. 

655,357 

380,100 

France. 

609,638 

353 , 6 oo 

Turkey. 

564,685 

327,500 

Africa. 

486,408 

282,100 

Great Britain. 

I 74 , 5 I 7 

101,200 

Russia. 

172,912 

100,300 

Argentina. 

66,153 

38,400 

China. 

None 

None 

India. 

None 

None 

Total. 

168,390,238 

$97,666,300 


THE CONSUMERS OF SILVER 

An examination of above tabulation is instructive. 
We find, for instance, that the teeming population of 
China (432,000,000) must look for their silver to other 
countries. India with its population of 295,200,000 pro- 

( 20 ) 




























duces no silver,f and the great population of the British 
Empire (306,968,798) is therefore dependent on the out¬ 
put- of silver from its mines in Australia, Canada and 
Africa for its commercial and currency needs. As the 
total product from these sources is but 18,452,077 ounces 
with a commercial value of $10,701,300 I it naturally 
follows that the British Empire is a buyer in lieu of a 
seller, and looks to the rest of the world for the silver it 
needs for the currency of its colonies and dependencies, 
and for their needs of the precious metal in the fine arts. 
India, for illustration, in 1904, coined $36,889,486 in 
silver; an enormously larger amount that the whole 
British Empire was capable of producing. 

The output of France, in 1904, shows a commercial 
value of $353,600,$ whilst this nation consumed in the 
fine arts alone $3,656,700 in 1901 (no statistics are avail¬ 
able after this date), while she coined silver to the 


* World’s Production of Silver for 1915 is as follows: 


Countries In Ounces Com. Value 

United States. 74,961,075 $38,898,801 

Mexico. 39,570,151 20,533,743 

Canada. 28,401,503 14,738,108 

Peru. 9,419,950 4.888,200 

Japan. 5,079,552 2,635,881 

Spain. 4,565,396 2.369,075 

Bolivia and Chile. 3,870,065 2,008,254 

New South Wales. 3,081,952 1,599,287 

Central America. 2,920,496 1,515,504 

Austria-Hungary. 1,572,746 816,129 

Turkey. 1,509,133 783,119 

Cape Colony and Natal.. 996,379 517,041 

Transvaal. 

New Zealand. 957,541 496,887 

Greece. 591,464 306,922 

Colombia. 351,271 182,281 

British India. 284,875 147,827 

Queensland. 239,748 124,410 

Rhodesia. 185,233 96,121 

Great Britain. 96,450 50,050 

Ecuador. 24,655 12,794 

Chosen (Kor). 21,876 11,352 

Brazil. 21,523 11,169 

China. 18,230 9,460 


Total.179,753,978 $93,277,933 


fit will be noted that British India shows a silver production 
for 1915. 

Jin 1915, 34,243,681 ounces of a commercial value of $17,- 
685,945. The figures including Great Britain’s home production. 

§ No domestic silver production shown in 1915 statistics. 

( 21 ) 





























value of $2,316,000 in 1905,* giving an approximate 
consumption of about $6,000,000 worth of silver annually; 
her own productions of $353,600 is, of course, ludicrously 
inadequate to supply her needs. 

Among foreign nations we find Russia the next heaviest 
consumer, she using silver to the commercial value of 
$2,212,800 for use in the arts, and coining, in 1904, $3,- 
609,176. Her production of silver ($100,300)! like France, 
is hardly worth consideration. Germanyf makes a better 
showing for a heavy consumer of silver, her production 
being $3,363,500, but she consumed in the arts alone 
$2,893,000 of the precious metal in 1901, and this has 
probably swelled in the interval, till her productive powers 
are equal simply to the drain made upon them by her 
artisans and manufacturers. This compels her to buy 
her silver for coinage purposes from the markets of the 
world, and that her demands are by no means light is 
shown by the fact that she coined $15,421,905 in 1904. 
Switzerland, consuming silver to the commercial value 
of $1,350,100, does not produce silver at all, and whilst 
her annual demand for silver coinage is light ($231,600) 
it is comparatively heavy in view of her limited popula¬ 
tion, and lack of ownership of silver mines. Japan pro¬ 
duces silver to the extent of $1,861,000 based on the 
1904$ output, and consumed for currency purposes in 
the same year silver to the value of $2,417,549. 

These nations, therefore, are consumers of the silver 
mined by other nations, the smaller countries of the 
world lacking silver, swelling the total consumption to 
heavier figures again. The Straits Settlements, for in¬ 
stance, coined, in 1904, silver currency to the value of 
$20,364,664, the Philippine Islands, $4,308,229; Hong 
Kong, $4,148,847; Egypt, $2,615,048; Indo-China, 
# 5 > 75 °> 7 12 ; Japan, $2,417,549; Morocco, $8,215,969; The 
Netherlands, $1,146,416; Panama, $2,071,014; Servia, 
$2,393,30°; Siam, $1,318,021; Turkey, $1,146,416, and 


♦Silver coinage in 1915 was $6,013,002. This, of course, 
shows a heavily increased consumption over 1904 figures. 

tNo domestic production shown in 1915 statistics. 

JNo domestic production shown in 1915 statistics. 

§ Japan’s production rose in 1915 to 5,079,552 ounces, valued 
at $2,635,881. 


( 22 ) 




lastly, China with the stupendous coin consumption 
during 1904 of $16,581,901. 1 

We now come to the nations with silver to their credit, 
i. e ., those who produce sufficient for their actual needs, 
and have some left over to sell to other nations. These 
comprise Mexico, 2 producing silver to the commercial 
value of $35,269,200, according to 1904 figures. This 
nation coined, in 1904, silver to the value of $19,343,540 
for her own needs, thus having silver to sell after her own 
currency demands had been satisfied. The United States 
produced, during 1904, silver to the commercial value of 
$33,456, ooo , 3 consumed $15,695,610, 4 and used in the 
fine arts, as becomes one of the leaders of civilization, 
silver to the commercial value of $7,709,100. Unless, 
therefore, her output materially increases she will be a 
buyer instead of seller in the silver markets of the world. 
Spain produced $2,828,100, 5 6 7 * and coined $1,489,972; 
Peru produced $1,745,100 s and used $36,097; Italy 
produced $439,5oo T and coined $60,629. The silver 
situation can be approximately gauged from these figures 
without taking account of the smaller nationalities, but 
the situation in toto can be accurately judged by the 
totals below: 

The entire world produced, in 1904, silver 

to the commercial value of. $97,666,300® 

The civilized world consumed for the fine 
arts and manufactures, during 1904, silver 

to the value of.. $25,443,7oo 9 

And coined, in the same year, silver to the 
value of.... . $172,270,379 


Total. $197,714,079 

1 China’s coinage in silver for 1915 was $56,502,742. 

2 Mexico’s output dropped to $20,533,743 in 1915. 

increased in 1915 to $38,898,801. 

■^Increased to $29,891,271 in 1915. 

8 A decrease in production is shown for 1915. 

6 An increase to $4,888,200 is shown by Peru for 1915. 

7 No domestic production shown in 1915 statistics. 

Production value dropped in 1915 to $93,277,934. 

9 Coinage of nations during 1915 was $100,679,385. Coinage 
fluctuates from year to year, some yearly demands being far 
heavier than others. An enormous amount of silver coinage 
disappears each year through hoarding. New production is re¬ 
quired to replace this hoarding, much of which represents a total 
loss. 


( 23 ) 








One of the most grandmotherly of the New York dailies, 
some little time ago, naively said that “Silver has risen 
steadily in value since 1903,” and then began to wonder 
why. Ye Gods and Little Fishes! Some people ARE dull. 


SILVER IN THE ARTS 

“Silver and gold are not the only coin; 

Virtue , too , passes current all over the world." 

—Edipus. 

Silver has been valued for its beauty from the earliest 
historical periods. The Spaniards symbolized the Virgin 
in wrought statues of pure silver, and many wretched 
victims of the Spanish Inquisition, through eyes glazed 
with hellish tortures, have witnessed with their last glance 
the silver Virgin gazing down in white compassion on 
their agonies. From the earliest periods on record the 
silversmiths have wrought vessels of silver for pleasure 
and state, and great artists have vied with each other in 
producing from the pale metal the most exquisite creations 
of symbolism and beauty. Ancients and moderns alike 
have ever fallen under the spell of the noble metal. It 
has ever been found in castles, cathedrals, palaces and 
ancestral halls, associated inseparably with power, wealth 
and culture. 


SILVER IN THE MANUFACTURES 

“According to the best authorities, the consumption 
of silver by manufacturers has trebled since 1850.”— 
Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics, 1898. 

Within comparatively modern times, however, silver 
has been largely used in manufacturing processes. It 
has qualities that the baser metals lack. It is one of the 
most malleable, the most ductile of metals. A single 
grain of silver will yield four hundred feet of exquisitely 
fine wire; it can be hammered into sheets one hundred 
thousandth part of an inch thick, and when in this condi¬ 
tion becomes thin enough to transmit light. It has great 
tensile strength, a wire one-twelfth of an inch in diameter 
supporting one hundred and eighty-five pounds. It is an 
excellent conductor of heat and electricity and is not 

( 24 ) 



affected by moisture. These qualities render, it capable 
of performing an infinite number of uses that the drosser 
metals are incapable of. 

Lunar Caustic is composed of silver dissolved in nitric 
acid which is then fused and cast into sticks. It is con¬ 
sumed in this form largely by physicians, surgeons and 
hospitals. 

Combined with a solution of ammonia, silver forms a 
powerful explosive known as Fulminate of Silver. This 
was the mixture that composed the bomb that killed 
the Czar of Russia. 

In the photographic and kindred arts, silver is largely 
consumed in the form of chloride, bromide and iodide of 
silver. It is an important and indispensable preparation 
to these manufactures. 

A vast quantity of silver is annually consumed in the 
silvering of mirrors. It is used under various names and 
forms in the medical and chemical sciences and also for 
laboratory purposes on account of its resistance to cor¬ 
roding acids. 

Solid silver is still largely consumed for plate, forks, 
cups and vessels of all descriptions, it not being affected 
in the slightest degree by any of the substances used as 
food. The popular demand for the beautiful metal, 
however, has led to various inventions whereby the com¬ 
paratively poor can now enjoy its use, solid silverware 
being now replaced to a very great extent by silver plate. 
The invention of the galvanoplastic process has ren¬ 
dered it possible to deposit a thin coat of silver on the 
baser metals, and this operation, when completed, gives 
to the article covered, all the appearance of solid silver, 
and, where ornamentation alone is desired, the same utility 
at an enormous reduction in cost. The chemical con¬ 
sumption for this purpose is very large. 

Large quantities of pure silver are annually used in 
the manufacture of watch cases, chains, pencil cases, 
and innumerable other articles that will be familiar to 
the reader. It is used for ornamental purposes on the 
heads of walking canes, parasols, etc., and adorns many 
toilet articles, such as brushes, combs, tooth brushes, etc. 

(25) 


THE TREMENDOUS INCREASE IN SILVER CONSUMPTION 

With the march of civilization of material wealth its 
consumption annually increases. In what ratio can be 
best shown by comparative data. The Universal Ency¬ 
clopaedia shows that the consumption for the year 1901 
in the industrial arts alone was $10,000,000, whilst the 
consumption in 1904 (a span of but three years) was 
$25,443,700.* The figures are significant as showing the 
enormous demand for silver in essential processes of 
manufacture and invention. 

This tremendously increased consumption has come 
about because silver has been found indispensable in 
the arts and manufactures of civilized nations; it does 
some things that no other metal can do; it does other 
things that no other metal can do as cheaply. Silver is 
silver. It knows no rival. Its pale lustrous beauty is 
unapproachable by any other metal. Polished steel ap¬ 
proaches nearest to it, but steel is rapidly attacked by 
moisture and acids. The Statue of Liberty, wrought in 
polished steel, would for a few days be a thing of marvel¬ 
ous beauty—thereafter an eye-sore. Wrought in silver, 
its pristine loveliness would remain undimmed by the 
salt sea air that sweeps in from the expanse of the broad 
Atlantic. 

In consideration of this point, also, it must be remem¬ 
bered that in manufacturing processes, and in the arts, 
silver is used under conditions where the metal cannot be 
again reclaimed for further use. In this respect it differs 
materially from the baser metals. When used for electro¬ 
plating for illustration nearly the whole so used is irre¬ 
claimable. 

When wrought into artistic creations it is theoretically 
recoverable, but works of art in silver represent the labor 
of inspiration and genius together with the work of the 
most highly paid silversmiths; the time employed in 
their creation, and necessarily the high monetary value 
of the skill or genius responsible for their construction 
frequently make the labor value as costly as the raw 
material itself; an ornamental vase wrought in silver 
remains a vase, it being far more valuable than the raw 

* Industrial consumption of silver during 1915 aggregated 
$37,209,318. 


( 26 ) 




silver it actually contains; to melt it would not alone be 
an act of vandalism, but an act of gross ignorance of 
artistic money values that few are so grossly uninformed 
as to commit. 

Silver used in the arts and manufacture, therefore, is 
permanently withdrawn from the floating supply of raw 
material. 

COINAGE CONSUMPTION OF SILVER 

In the coinage systems of the world, however, silver 
plays its salient part. Its consumption in the arts is 
caused by private buyers, but its consumption in cur¬ 
rency is caused by governmental buyers. All leading 
civilized nations are consumers of silver on a gigantic 
scale for their currency needs. 

In 1904 we have seen that the silver coinage of nations 
was $172,270,379, whilst the world’s total production 
approximated but $97,666,300—this means a shortage of 
supply; it also means an inevitable rise in price because 
the demand is growing with giant strides. 

In illustrating this tendency to climb we will, neces¬ 
sarily must, take a nation abreast with the others in the 
march of commercial progress, but we will also take a 
nation that has made silver the subsidiary coinage—not 
the main coinage. That nation is the United States. It 
has demonitized silver, and when it needs the metal for 
coinage buys it in the cheapest market at the lowest 
current market rate. It will thus be perceived that every 
factor is against the metal, and that it is compelled to 
stand on its own merits independent of governmental 
regulation or national subsidy. 

In the year 1880 the United States coined $224,296 in 
silver. In the year 1900 (a span of twenty years) $36,- 
345,321 was coined in the same metal. The figures are 
inconceivable, of course, for a stationary nation, but when 
read in the light of population statistics their accuracy is 
evident enough. The population of the United States in 
1880 was 5,308,483; in 1900, 76,303,387. An increasing 
population must have increased silver coinage, hence 
the startling difference in the totals. We find, for in¬ 
stance, that the total money in circulation in 1880 was 
$26,500,000, whilst in 1900 it had grown to the vast total 
of $2,055,150,998 (figures are confined to the United 

(27) 


States) whilst the growth is expressed in another way by 
the following figures: 

Total money in circulation (per capita) 1880. $ 5.00 

7 'otal money in circulation (per capita) 1900. 26.94* 

This naturally means that each individual was richer 
in money in 1900 than in 1880. It also means that the 
swelling tide of population required an enormously larger 
quantity dug from Nature’s treasure vaults than was 
required in 1880. 


Every dollar’s worth of silver extracted from the mines 
of the world leaves one dollar less to be mined. Nature’s 
silver treasure vaults of the past have become exhausted. 
Fresh discoveries of silver, unless on a scale as yet un¬ 
paralleled in mining history, can but satisfy existing de¬ 
mands. Consumption with seven-leagued boots is out¬ 
pacing production. Sagacious men have already divined 
the situation. Capital, quietly, unobtrusively, is pouring 
into the silver producing regions of the earth. Natural 
demands are bringing about a silver famine which looms 
portentously near. It requires no Joseph to interpret the 
cold logic of facts. Silver, after a century of “bearing,” is 
coming into its own. 

SUBSIDY VS. NATURAL DEMAND 

Melt a ten-dollar gold piece, take the cooled lump to 
the Mint, and you will receive ten dollars for it. 

Melt a silver dollar, take the cooled lump to the Mint, 
and you will not receive a dollar for it; indeed, you may 
not receive anything for it. If the government happens 
to be in need of silver it will buy your silver at market 
quotations. 

The standard silver dollar weighs 412^ grains. It con¬ 
tains 371.25 grains of silver and 44.25 grains of copper. 
If your 371.25 grains of silver were worth, by market 
quotations 70 cents, that is the sum you would receive. 
Your experimental proclivities would have cost you 
30 cents. 

The governments of the world will always take gold; 
25.8 grains of gold is always worth a dollar. Gold, there¬ 
fore, has a government guarantee. Silver has not. 


* In 1915, per capita, $39.58. 

(28) 






Silver, therefore, is quoted strictly in accordance with 
the DEMAND. It received no favors. 

The demand springs from those individuals who use 
silver in the arts and manufactures, and from govern¬ 
ments who use silver for money. The demand for manu¬ 
facturing and artistic purposes is fast increasing, primarily 
because of the advance in riches, in population, in civili¬ 
sation, in manufactures. The world is going forward 
—not backwards. Culture and refinement are increasing— 
not decreasing. Manufactures are increasing—not de¬ 
creasing. Population is increasing—not decreasing. Cur¬ 
rency needs are increasing—not decreasing. These are 
axioms. 

Silver production is decreasing—not increasing. 

Silver consumption is increasing—not decreasing. 


ENORMOUS CURRENCY DEMANDS 

“It appears that coinage now absorbs more than half 
the stock of silver.”— Mulhall’s Dictionary of Statistics , 
1898. 

The demand for currency alone will shortly throw a 
tremendous strain on the silver supplies of the world. 
Silver can never be dispensed with or supplanted. History, 
from the remotest periods, verifies that fact in the past. 
The cold logic of reason buttresses it for the future. Silver 
meets every demand of a subsidiary currency. It is easily 
transportable, readily recognized, durable and divisable, 
and, in its sphere as subsidiary currency, its value is cer¬ 
tain. Gold, useful in large payments, is useless in small. 
Silver, its production being larger than gold, is of lesser 
value, consequently larger bulk goes into coin made from 
it, making such coins easier to handle. The dime or 
half dollar, coined in gold, would be an intolerable 
nuisance because so infinitely small. Silver holds supreme 
sway for coinage purposes for coins ranging from ten 
cents to one dollar. It becomes, therefore, indispensable, 
in the multitudinous transactions of daily life, and par¬ 
ticularly indispensable in countries where the scale of 
living and the individual dealings of their people are 
small. Among these may be mentioned particularly 
China and India. 


( 29 ) 



WHERE SILVER GOES 

“In 280 years, ending 1830, India absorbed 55,000 tons 
of silver, worth 490,000,000 sterling.”— Mulhall's Diction¬ 
ary of Statistics , i8g8. 

We find, therefore, that England uses silver for her 
popular currency, comprising the sixpence, shilling, florin, 
half crown and crown; Germany in the manufacture of her 
five, two and one mark, and her fifty pfennig pieces, and 
France in the manufacture of her five, two, one franc, 
and fifty centime pieces. These nations buy and supply 
silver to their colonies and dependencies, and their in¬ 
dividual annual consumption, as we have seen, rises to 
very large figures. It will be remembered that India 
coined over thirty-six millions of dollars in silver in 1904, 
and that China coined over sixteen millions of dollars. 
India has always been the giant silver consumer of the 
world, and this, notwithstanding the fact that she is on 
the gold standard, the current coin being the rupee, 
quarter rupee and one-eighth rupee. Her populace is 
comparatively poor and their unit of value is the silver 
rupee. The natives of India are compelled to the use of 
silver, are accustomed to it, and indeed, value it to such 
an extent that the utmost difficulty is experienced in 
keeping silver coinage in circulation, their tendency being 
to hoard it. China, similarly, is an extensive user of 
silver coinage, her peculiarity in this regard being that 
she has no complete coinage system of her own, but uses 
largely the coin of other nations, the Mexican dollar being 
the favorite medium of exchange, with the United States 
dollar a close second. The Chinese, as a matter of fact, 
still conduct a large proportion of their trade in accordance 
with the ancient system of barter and exchange, and, as 
civilization gradually spreads, silver will be introduced in 
the innermost portions of the Empire, making her a 
tremendously heavy consumer of the pale metal. 

THE AWAKENING OF THE ORIENT 

“The stock of silver is relatively much lower now than 
in the early years of the present century.”— Mulhall's 
Dictionary of Statistics , i8g8. 

China has ever been a sphinx among nations. Her 
tremendous population has ever been a keen incentive 

(30) 


to the world’s merchants to gain her trade. She has 
remained passive, quiescent, whilst around her clanged 
the looms of the world’s trades. Japan, her sister nation, 
remained the same during the centuries of progress that 
were born around her. Then she amazed the world. 
In a span of seventy years she has risen from a barbarous 
power to a civilized one. Seventy years! A tremendous 
revolution which has quickened the throb of giant ma¬ 
chinery in every part of the civilized globe. Four years 
ago the thunder of her cannon demolishing the Russian 
fleets cracked through the ears of sleeping China; the 
Giant of the Orient stirred uneasily. She is at last awake! 
Into her slumberous eyes there at last shoots the light 
of comprehension; the Yellow race can vie with the White. 
Japan with easy arrogance leaps forward, and China, 
inspired by example of kindred custom, clumsily, shamb- 
lingly follows. Ten years will hardly be stripped from 
Father Time ere China will be marching, millions strong, 
in the industrial march of progress. Silver she will want, 
silver she will have for her quickened pulse of trade.* 
She can consume the world’s product as we know it now. 
China is the silver bull that will toss values to giddy heights. 

Charles A. Conant, in his able work, “Wall Street and 
the Country,” strikes at the heart of the matter when 
he says: 

“The railway system of China is yet in its infancy, 
but the country promises soon to be gridironed with bands 
of steel which will open a new chapter in her economic 
life. 

“Among these will be the use of money . . . when¬ 
ever a railroad is in operation, coined money will be 
required for buying the products of the country and 
paying wages. Wherever a railway is in operation, money 
will be the only practicable medium for paying freights. 
Hence railway extension will open new fields for the use 
of money and introduce masses of the Chinese people 
to the commercial habits of the West. One of the next 
logical steps, therefore, in the opening of China will be the 
adoption of a national system of currency.” 

And again: 

* China's silver coinage for 1915, .$56,502,742. She coined 
$16,581,901 in 1904. 


( 51 ) 



“The people of the interior of China have not yet 
realized the extent to which the lack of coined money 
hampers the development of trade.” 

The coast population of China, a comparatively thin 
fringe of humanity, have grown accustomed to silver 
coin, but the enormous masses of population in the in¬ 
terior still retain primitive customs of barter in their 
commerce. China may, probably will, go on the gold 
standard; that is, her products and her silver will be 
measured by gold, but her habitual currency, like India, 
will be silver. On that point no controversy can arise. 
From whom and from where will this gigantic mammoth 
get its silver food? Let Americans pray that the product 
of their silver mines double and treble again. 

It is a fact greatly to be desired; its consumation is 
doubted; its realization will bring stupendous wealth to 
American coffers. 

CHARACTERISTIC CONDITIONS OF SILVER PRODUCTION 

The student of silver values should note one character¬ 
istic condition peculiar to the metal. There are compara¬ 
tively few silver mines in the world. The few that there 
are, when not handicapped by natural obstacles such as 
heat or water, have invariably paid tremendous dividends 
to their stockholders. By silver mines is meant mines 
that are mined primarily for the silver metal, and for no 
other metal; that is, their silver ores alone are sufficient 
to pay cost of production and dividends on their issued 
stock. The exclusive silver mines, taking out the metal 
in large quantities have been, and always will be bonanzas. 
Copper mines mining copper at 22 cents per pound have 
proved millionaire makers; what then are the possibilities 
of the silver mine of high production with the metal selling 
at 70 cents per ounce? 

Silver, with few exceptions, is a by-product. 

Another peculiarly characteristic condition relating to 
silver should also be carefully noted. Till within a com¬ 
paratively short period, the governments of the world 
guaranteed its value. Crushing blows within the past 
hundred years have been given silver producers by this 
guarantee being withdrawn. Currency revolutions tend¬ 
ing to further enhance the value of gold, and depreciate 

(32) 


the value of silver have repeatedly occurred. The nations 
of the world have decreed that Gold shall be king, and 
have extended to its spouse, Silver, the privileges only 
of a morganatic marriage. Silver has been denied the 
right of full legal tender and the leading nations of the 
world, one by one, have demonetized silver, buying the 
metal only when they needed it, and then buying only 
at the lowest commercial price. 

Regarded as, and produced as, a by-product by the 
greater number of the world’s mines, the metal was imme¬ 
diately marketed for what it would bring. 

The governments of the world bought at lowest ruling 
prices, and, in many instances, “beared” the metal through 
international machinery till it was acquired below its 
intrinsic value. Silver has been unfortunate in the fact 
that governmental interests, whilst compelled to its use, 
worked invariably for its depreciation. It has been an 
unfortunate metal in this regard. Baser metals have been 
left alone, or interfered with, if at all, by private interests 
only, and no private interest, or group of interests is col¬ 
lectively as strong as the government which encompasses 
them. Demand and supply, therefore, whilst temporarily 
held apart, have in the end come together far more quickly 
than has been possible with silver, which has been ostra¬ 
cised, outlawed and excommunicated, not by one nation, 
but by a series of nations; not at one time, but at differing 
periods. 

Silver, debarred her queenly currency rights, has been 
forced to face the rigors of commercial life and trade, 
under conditions where her natural struggles for the recog¬ 
nition that was her due have been tremendously handi¬ 
capped, but silver today, by very reason of her fiscal 
persecution, stands in an unparalleled position in the 
world of commerce. The worst that could be done has 
been done; blow after blow has fallen on her devoted head, 
and she has survived them. Her noble qualities, her 
intrinsic value has been proved under the most rigorous 
tests. Silver today is worth more than one dollar per 
ounce on the plain commercial demand; is worth more 
than one dollar per ounce in view of the famished condi¬ 
tions that are fast depleting the world’s silver bins. Pro¬ 
duction almost stationary, consumption is beginning 
with eager eyes to scour the earth for productive silver 

(33) 


mines. The “inner ring,” the world’s shrewdest money 
generals, the keenest financial students, the most observing 
mining men and geologists, the few, are alive to present 
conditions, but the bulk of the people are not. Tremendous 
potentialities lie in the silver situation to those who can 
read the logic of the situation. Silver, her foot on the 
ladder of intrinsic values, has begun, slowly, quietly, 
unobtrusively, her tremendous upward climb. Within 
the next decade stupendous fortunes will be achieved 
by the owners of silver stocks. 


“It is a fallacy to suppose that the world is being flooded 
with silver.”— Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics y i8gS. 

AN EXTRAORDINARY SILVER SITUATION 

“There has been a dearth of silver, the production falling 
short of the consumption (1898). The deficit was prob¬ 
ably met by melting down old plate.”— Mulhall's Dictionary 
of Statistics , 1898. 

By examination of the following table it will be seen 
that the production of silver, since 1896, has remained 
almost stationary in the United States: 


United States Production Troy Ounces 

1896 . 58,834,800 

1897 . 53,860,000 

1898 . 54,438,000 

18 99 . 54 , 7 6 4 , 5 °° 

1900 . 57,647,000 

1901 . 55,214,000 

1902 . 55,500,000 

I 9°3 . 54 > 3 00 > 000 

J 9°4 . 55 > 999>864 

T 9°5. 56,101,594* 


* 1915 production in ounces, 74,961,075. 

Metal Production, 1915 Measure 

Gold. 4,887,604 Troy Oz. 

Copper.1,388,009,527 Pounds 

Lead. 507,026 Short Tons 

Zinc. 458,135 Short Tons 

Aluminum. 99,806,000 Pounds 

Antimony. 2,000 Short Tons 

Nickel. 1,120,000 Pounds 

Platinum. 8,665 Troy Oz. 

Quicksilver. 21,033 Flasks (75 lbs. net) 

( 34 ) 























Daring the period above cited the production of other 
commercial metals has advanced rapidly. The following 
table will best exemplify this: 


Production Production 

Metal 1896 1905 Measure 

Gold. 2,568,132 4,265,742 Troy Oz. 

Copper.460,061,430 901,907,843. Pounds 

Lead. 188,000 302,000 Short Tons 

Zinc. 81,499 308,849 Short Tons 

Aluminum. 1,300,000 11,347,000* Pounds 

Antimony. 2,478 3,240 Short Tons 

Nickel. 17,870 24,ooof Pounds 

Platinum. 163 318 Troy Oz. 

Quicksilver. . . . 30,765 30,451 Flasks 

Silver. 58,834,800 56,101,594 Troy Oz. 


Several curious facts are noticeable in above tabulation, 
one being that of platinum. In 1896, 163 ounces were 
produced, their value being $944, whilst in 1905, 318 
ounces were produced (not quite double the 1905 output) 
valued at $5,320. 

Quicksilver gives a remarkable exhibit of stationary 
production. Webster defines it as “Living Silver,” and 
its close approximation to silver in output figures, ap¬ 
pearance and price is remarkable. 

The tremendous advances scored in lead, zinc and 
copper are too well known to need reproduction here. 
These advances have been caused by the natural demands 
of the world with its constantly growing population and 
its constantly improving civilization. Lead, zinc and 
copper, however, have never had the tremendous handi¬ 
cap of hostile legislation to fight against. Governmental 
action has never shaken the confidence of the people in 
their future use in the industries and arts; they have 
never in any degree aspired to the currency throne, have 
never claimed noble lineage, consequently they have 
never faced revolutions and counter revolutions whose 
strength and bitterness would have overcome any less 
noble metal than Queen Silver. 

Here, then, is the situation in regard to the United 
States. For the situation in regard to the entire world 

* Consumption for 1904-05, inclusive, 
t 1904 figures; 1905 estimates not yet to hand. 

( 35 ) 












the writer feels he cannot do better than quote Daniel 
Guggenheim, the head of the Smelter Trust; No better 
authority probably exists on the silver question, the 
statistical records of the Guggenheims springing from 
practical operations of world-wide properties in which 
they are heavily interested, and through which they can 
gauge, far in advance of the multitude, the ebb and flow 
of demand and supply. 

THE EXHAUSTION OF THE WORLD’S SILVER 

“The business of the world has been seriously hampered 
during the latter half of the year 1906 by a lack of suffi¬ 
cient capital. In other words, the production of the 
money metals, on which all currency is based, has not 
kept pace with the increasing demands of the world. 
These demands have been due to plentiful crops, large 
consumption due to prosperity, and enhancing values.” 

“SILVER.”—The position of silver in the world is 
unique. As a production it has shown no increase for the 
past ten years. The report of the Director of the Mint 
for 1905 conforms almost exactly to the production of 
1906, namely, 157,000,000 ounces. During this period of 
ten years the price of silver in the New York market has 
been as low as 46 cents, and at the close of the year 1906 
it was selling above 70 cents, or an increased price of 
more than 50 per cent., yet the reports of the Director of 
the Mint show a decline in production for the year 1905 
as compared with the preceding year, and there seems 
every reason to believe that no increase in the production 
of silver has taken place during the year 1906.* 

“As a matter of fact, silver is produced largely as a 
by-product in connection with the production of copper 
and lead. Its production, therefore, is not based upon 
its value. Furthermore, and peculiarly, the consumption 
of silver is also not regulated except to a very minor extent 
by its value, at least within known ranges. The United 
States needing to buy silver to satisfy the demands of 
the people for subsidiary currency, the silver will be pur¬ 
chased, since the Government coins it at the rate of $1.38 
an ounce. If the silver can be purchased at 69 cents, 

♦Value of silver produced in 1915 was $93,277,934. In 19U4 
it was $97,666,300. 


( 36 ) 



the Government issues it at double its cost, and should 
the cost of the metal be $i an ounce, the Government 
would purchase the same quantity, but would make a 
profit of 38 per cent, instead of 100 per cent, in coining. 
This is similarly the case with most of the coinages of 
the world. The consumption of silver in the arts is con¬ 
stantly increasing with the increased number of inhabi¬ 
tants and the increased wealth of the world. Doubtless 
an increased price, if considerable, might make an appre¬ 
ciable difference in the consumption of silver in the arts, 
but as compared with the total consumption this would 
be insignificant. 

“For many years there has been no accumulation of 
silver. Consumption has at least been equal to production 
at all times, and for several years it has been considerably 
in excess of the amount produced yearly from the mines 
of the world. The additional amounts consumed have 
been obtained from various sources, notably, the accumu¬ 
lation in the Treasury of the United States at Washing¬ 
ton; the accumulation at Berlin, caused by the demonetiza¬ 
tion of silver in Germany in 1869, and the silver reserve 
held against circulation in Mexico, Japan, and the various 
South American countries. Apparently these various 
supplies have been nearly, if not quite, exhausted, and, 
unless some new, notable discovery of silver is made, 
the demand for silver during the year 1907 is likely to 
far exceed the supply. India always has consumed on 
the average about 50 per cent, of the world’s production 
of silver.”—Daniel Guggenheim, in Annual Financial Re¬ 
view of the New York Times. 


THE WORLD’S PROBLEM 

It should be remembered that silver is a world-wide 
commodity, used and valued by every person born in the 
midst of civilization. The baby has hardly seen the 
light before he is the proud possessor of a dime or a dollar, 
according to circumstances, donated by a proud father, 
brother, sister or relative. That baby will require a good 
many dimes and dollars in the course of his life; so, of 
course, will his hundreds of thousands of little brothers 
that blinked into life when he arrived. Silver is catering 

( 37 ) 



more or less to a billion and a half of people in every part 
of the world, in every condition of life, and in every stage 
of civilization above that of the mere savage. Increase 
of population, therefore, is the big factor in the silver 
outlook. Statistical information on the world’s population, 
and its increase, is unfortunately none too exact, but 
that it is increasing at a tremendous rate there is not the 
slightest doubt. The Universal Encyclopaedia says: 

“The more general prevalence of hygienic methods of 
life, greater care in furnishing supplies of untainted water, 
a better understanding of the causes of various diseases 
and the means of preventing them, and above all, the more 
general adoption of sanitary drainage, have tended very 
greatly to diminish the death rate and so remove some 
of the checks upon the increase of population. The most 
powerful of all influences in this direction have been the 
methods and facilities introduced within the 19th Century 
for the more easy distribution of surplus products. Regions 
which formerly seemed incapable of supporting the neces¬ 
sities of mankind are now supplied from remote regions, 
and the consequence is that all over the civilized world 
population has increased with a rapidity hitherto entirely 
unknown. Within one century the population of the 
various countries of Europe has increased more than it 
had increased for several centuries before.” 

The wise old world has grappled with many a problem 
in the past, but the coming problem of silver is destined 
to give it the puzzle of its history. 


“The uses to which the precious metals were put in 
50 years down to 1888 are stated by Saltbeer to be: 


SILVER TONS 

Period Coinage Manufacturers The East Total 

183I-40. 2,700 2,000 2,200 6,900 

184I-50. 4,800 2,200 2,400 9,400 

1851-60. 2,700 11,300 14,000 

1871-80. 3,ioo 12,300 15,400 

50 years. 1,200 4,500 ic,8oo 16,500 

( 38 ) 








1831-80 

Silver Tons 


Production. 37>' 2 73 

Consumption. 62,200 

Deficit. 4,927” 


—Mulhairs Dictionary of Statistics, 1898* 

THE FUTURE OF SILVER 

Fashions in investments change. Inner interests, 
comprising in the main financiers with exhaustive statisti¬ 
cal data at their command, are the first to detect the in¬ 
coming tide of capital and the channels through which it 
will flow. Men close to the subject by reason of environ¬ 
ment or occupation share with financiers the benefits 
accruing in proportion to the money they can invest or 
control. These men are skimming the cream of investment 
profits when the public proper becomes alive to the situa¬ 
tion. The chances for ground floor profits are then past; 
the financier has the cream—the public gets the skimmed 
milk. 

Since 1893 a tremendous revolution has occurred in 
silver history. Crushing blows have been delivered at 
the metal. That revolution is now complete; the world is 
on a gold basis. The silver countries measure their out¬ 
put, their values, their currency, by gold. Silver, repeat¬ 
edly beaten down at each attempt to rise, was finally 
beaten into insensibility by the fiscal hurricane that 
raged over her. The storm circle has passed, the cycle 
is completed, and silver, convalescent, feels the warm, 
rich blood of world demand coursing through her veins. 
Her future is before her; the long vista of centuries to 
come are opened up, and silver is the next celebrity to 
achieve fame for herself and fortune for her adherents on 
the financial stage. 

The writer claims none of the attributes of the seer. 
He claims but the ability to predict coming events from 
deductions drawn from a cold examination of basic facts. 
The conclusion arrived at needs no spectacular blazoning 
to the world; it is obtrusively evident and all who run 
may read. 

* Later figures are not available from this source. 

( 39 ) 








Copper began its upward climb some years ago in the 
midst of dismay and gloom. It lifted thousands upon 
thousands to affluence and wealth. The coming silver 
boom in spectacular wealth w'ill make copper chronicles 
look tame. The forward movement has already begun; 
the most widely optimistic can scarcely guess where it 
will end. The tremendous output of Cobalt during 1906 
astonished the world; it was swept into depleted silver 
bins, governmental and private, and consumption sucked 
them d y. $ic,000,000 of silver ore shipped and sold 
during 1906 from one small region, and silver steadily 
rising! 

The United States and Mexico are the silver merchants 
of the world; indeed, within the past few months, Mexico 
has been unable to keep pace with the demand, and the 
world’s buyers have centered in the United States alone. 
India alone, during 1906, absorbed $100,000,000 for her 
currency needs. Director of the Mint Roberts states that 
76 cents an ounce wall amost inevitably be reached, and 
probably 80 cents. Mr. Roberts failed to express the 
situation. Naturally! His government was BUYING 
300,000 ounces per week during this period; would you 
have a buyer—representing one of the world’s chief 
nations, too—bull what he seeks ? Was the United 
States, by the ill advised remark of an official, to precipi¬ 
tate one of the most tremendous bull markets in silver 
stocks history had ever witnessed? Mr. Roberts failed 
to express the situation. A man who suspects himself of 
optimism in regard to the silver situation, recently ad¬ 
vanced the opinion that silver would reach $1.50 per 
ounce. He was certainly modest in his estimates. Let 
him run over the silver situation again, and then revise 
as the logic of facts indicates. 

The world is entering an era of silver kings. Already 
the silver mines of the great West begin to throb and glow 
with life. The blood of capital, unlimited capital, has 
been injected into the silver situation. The “insiders” 

■ I < 9 9 

are on. 

Corral the stock of a good silver mine if you can; hold 
it down until you call your friends. Then “load up” and 
HOLD. The gigantic swing of silver values, long overdue, 
is at hand. Get “long” on “silvers”; they will lift you 
and yours to wealth. 


( 40 ) 









